I love Question Week almost as much as list week
I think CEO poses some great questions that will really help you focus on making the holiday best 'for you and yours'! That's the great thing about the HGP - the flexibility in making the details work for you.

Christmas for us will be primarily a family time - just the five of us. No plans to entertain this year.

We have our family Advent observances, attending services at church has been sporadic as the boys are older - but I do enjoy Christmas Eve mass.

The preparation of Christmas is important to me, my family enjoys the bits and pieces but I love the whole 'plan' and get enjoyment out of the lists, cleaning and organizing as much as the baking and the decorating.

The most important thing for the boys I think are the food and the trimmings of Christmas. They shared they do not often remember the gifts, but they do recall what I had cooked and baked; the cookies decorated, gingerbread house building together and the family movie and game nights.

We observe the traditions we do as they work for us now. They have changed over the years as the boys have aged.

I do not 'elaborately' decorate for the holidays - I am a traditionalist that prefers simple aesthetics; very much a less is more person. My style changes a little as we have moved, reflecting the home we live in and the ages of our boys.

My ideal Christmas I think is always the same. Just a simple quiet celebration, music lights and food - with my husband and our boys.

We are in the process of changing how our rooms are 'working' for us. We live in an older home, built early 1900's, our dining-room will be turned into the living room / dining combo. This week as we continue work on fall projects I will clear out the built-in cabinets in the living room, decluttering the family games and moving the stored candles and assorted holiday holders to a new location.

I am making our cards this year for Christmas - so have already purchased the card stock and envelopes, plus the tags for gifts (to make).

I have given 'dad' the primary gift list this year for the boys as they are computer based - and he will be the best one to shop for those items!

Do I see Christmas time primarily as a time for entertaining friends and renewing long lost acquaintances or as a time for family?- We try to balance entertaining friends with plenty of family time. We'll host a dinner party for friends the first Saturday in December but after that we don't have much else planned for anyone but us. No guests - as far as I know this year - other than some sort of visit from my sister and her boyfriend at some point.

How involved is my family in the Christmas preparation? - I have typically done the bulk of the Christmas prep myself which I am fine with. DH helps with the outside lights and brings in the tall ladder I need to do the big Christmas tree. I have some baking and crafting activities planned to involve DS.

What activities are particularly important to our family at Christmas? To myself? - Our trip to see Santa at the mall is a must! If it has snowed, we do a drive to look at Christmas lights. Last year I started the Pajama Elves box for DS and plan to continue this year. I'm planning a movie night to watch Polar Express the night the box "arrives" and another family movie night around watching The Grinch (DS hasn't seen that one yet) - I feel that it is important to plan ahead and schedule things like that or they just don't happen!

Why do we observe the traditions we do in our house? - Many of our traditions are inherited from DH's family. Some have just evolved on our own.

How important is an elaborately decorated house, homemade gifts or food, to my feelings about Christmas? - I do like to go all out on decorations! I truly enjoy doing it so don't plan to change anything there. I also have those I know appreciate homemade gifts so I work on those all year long as possible. I am trying to keep things simpler on the food front - especially since it will be just us for the actual holiday. Still planning to do Christmas cookies/trays for gifting and cinnamon rolls for co-workers and DS's school. Our freezer will be filled with appetizers for our dinner party and the rest of the menu will be quick/simple items like meatballs in the crockpot, shrimp cocktail and so on.

What would my ideal Christmas be like? - It would be ideal to have both my sister and her boyfriend, my dear friend and her girls from CO and all of DH's brothers and their families all over to our house for one big long massive celebration. And while I'm dreaming, I'd want us all to go on horse drawn carriage or sleigh rides through softly falling snow, sipping hot cocoa and singing carols. But reality means we don't see a chance of that any time soon. Excluding THAT fantasy, ideal would mean we have lots of chances to enjoy the little moments of the season together with as little stress as possible!

We had company this weekend for Labor Day so I did not get as much cleaning done as I had hoped! But just getting all the fall decor up was a good thing! Will be working in the rest of the tasks during the evenings this week. I have Friday off to prep for a party we are hosting Saturday, so I hope to do the big job of cleaning the floors that day!

Holiday Prep Tasks:

[ ] Buy extra flour, sugar, shortening, etc. - Will pick up flour again during grocery trip this week! Butter too!
[N/A] Make one extra meal for the freezer - Not ready to start freezer cooking just yet, but SOON!

I finished the front porch today. DH has some deck repairs to do when on vacation next week.
Started the living room. It is one of the rooms being painted so will take 2 weeks to do this room. I am in the process of going through the bookshelves. I need DH to say okay to the books I pulled to give away and determine if there are more to give. I will look into the piano bench but I believe I will need DD 28 to do that when she is here again.

Just put a loaf of Amish friendship bread in the oven. The last time I baked it end of the loaf facing the back of the oven burned. I did 2 loaves then so am doing one at a time to see if makes a difference.

I did not cross off any more HGP tasks last night. I did, however, cleanup a huge mess in my craft area and also in the pantry. Both areas now look MUCH better! We're having company this weekend and just needed to get those things under control! Back to my list tonight!

i am working on my living room today getting a new sofa so good time to move things out and around to clean. will be going to the grocery store today anyway so will start stocking up on aluminum pans reynolds warp plastic wrap batteries light bulbs never seem to have them when one blows. anything else i see that i may need dollar tree has cute betty crocker storage bowls.

Other than normal house maintenance tasks, doing homework with DS, feeding him, etc. and a trip to the grocery store I did not do anything else last night. Fell into bed at 9PM and passed out! lol

Have one more grocery trip I'll make right after leaving work and then I'll pick up DS and head home. I'm off tomorrow - will work on my HGP tasks as possible tonight and will definitely fit some in tomorrow! Hoping to finish tomorrow, actually!

Out goes the old couch today! Poor thing has seen better decades - yep it was really old!

We cleaned then rolled up the large area carpet and will put in storage till this room is finished, right in time for HGP FAMILY ROOM week! Well, that's the plan It will all depend upon when we have the gas fireplace installed and the furniture is ordered/delivered. Looking at the end of the month to complete those tasks. DH would like it completed for Hockey Season - so here's hoping that's incentive for him!

Cleared out a lot of space in the built-ins this week - and made a list of needed storage when we build the dinette (baskets under the bench for cloth napkins, candles and place-mats...)

Worked a little on the gardens and fall projects as well, cleaning up the bird feeders and more mulch under the shrubs.

Looks like this coming week will be good weather wise for paint here, so will be painting right after work on the porch trim and working on the storm windows project. .

I am almost done with Living Room/Foyer week. We have just a little trim work to do between the white ceiling and gray wall. The back wall is 12' high and not an easy reach. DH and I are discovering that we are not as "energetic" as we use to be. I have new curtains to hang and the floor to clean. Hopefully, we can get it done before I have to leave for work at 11:00 to morning.

I am still in the LR. Should have it done by the end of the weekend. We are traveling to Mom's (7 hour drive to MI) for a quick visit. I was hoping for a longer visit but the new job needs more days next week. Next will be the kitchen. I have everything figured out but the floor. It needs to be redone but the pocketbook isn't giving permission yet.